Monday, 10 February 2014

The Lifetime Achievement of Rick Hautala

Prior to his premature death in March 2013, Rick Hautala had written over 90 novels and short stories (including four novels under the pen name A.J. Matthews), as well as screenplays. In 2011 he earned a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award from the Horror Writers Association. His short stories are widely anthologized, and his short story entitled "Knocking" was included in the 1999 Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology, 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense.

Like his fellow Maine author Stephen King, Hautala is able to imbue the everyday with a sense of underlying threat and horror, and he tackled and gave new life to diverse horror themes from the werewolf to the evil doll. His novel Night Stone was an international bestseller. Another of his extremely popular novels, Little Brothers, tells the story of the "untcigahumk"--hideous forest creatures who feed every five years on human flesh. His short story collection Bedbugs was named by Barnes and Noble as one of the best horror works of 2000.

For more information on Rick Hautala, his works (including those published posthumously), interview links, and a video link to his acceptance speech for the Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award, please click here.

The Southern Maine Community College, where he taught for a number of years, will be hosting a "Celebration of Rick
Hautala" on Thursday, March 27, 2014, at 7:00 pm.